Final Reflection: What I Learned From CS377G
Even before taking this class, I loved creating games. Most of the games I designed were videogames, and none of them were “serious” games. However, I always believed that games were one of the most persuasive forms of art. I wanted to take this class so I could learn to make games that had an impact that was more than just entertainment, and also so that I could meet other people who were passionate about the same thing.
Before this class, I also always made my games by myself, so I knew going into the class that the game-making process, since many of our projects were going to be group projects, was probably going to be a completely different process than game-making alone. And it definitely was a learning experience!
Working with a group of people, especially with other game designers, had positives and negatives, but overall I really liked it! I especially liked getting to hear their creative ideas for game mechanics — especially because many of them played and took inspiration from games that I’ve never played. I think one of the biggest things I’ll definitely take from this class is an invigorated excitement to play even more games and take more inspiration from others for cool game mechanics — and it’s all thanks to my peers.
At the same time, working with groups had its cons as well. One of the biggest pitfalls, in my opinion, was that working in a group required deliberations about the game direction. While deliberations on their own are not bad at all, and in fact can lead to really great breakthroughs, it seemed like some of my groups would get too stuck on deliberations, and took too much time trying to discuss ideas. This was especially evident in my P3 group, where we spent the first week and a half discussing game mechanics and trying to build on each others’ ideas, before we actually settled on an idea. Afterwards, when we playtested it, we found that there were a lot of flaws that we couldn’t foresee during our brainstorming.
Of course, that’s a totally normal part of game-making, but the bad part about it was that we only had half a week to fix those major flaws. Given that the sprints for this class were crazy short, spending 75% of our allocated project time just planning things out and not taking action was definitely an error on our part. From going through this experience, I learned to always consider time scopes of projects, allot time (especially if your mechanics are untested) in case major flaws pop up, and most importantly, test ideas often, instead of just keeping your game design abstract and theoretical. I think if my group had done these things, our game could have turned out even better than it did!
In addition, overall, I found some really neat tips about how to better design serious games. One of the tips that I think I’ll always remember is first trying to outline the outcome you want your game to have, and using that to define aesthetics, then using that to define dynamics, and then finally using that to define mechanics. I found this really interesting, especially because for all of my games, I generally start with mechanics and then try to find dynamics, aesthetics, and outcomes along the way.
We got a little bit of practice with using the Outcome->Aesthetics->Dynamics->Mechanics workflow for my P1 project, GeoGO, and I found that choosing the outcome, an educational geography game, first, was very helpful. Afterwards, my group would brainstorm mechanics and see if they could build upon our intended outcome. In the end, we came up with a really fun game, and I think it was because of reverse workflow. I ended up using that workflow in my P2, since I wanted an emotionally devastating game, and used that to inform a lot of mechanics and visuals for my interactive fiction.
Finally, one of the last big things that I’ll take from this class is an appreciation for getting out of my comfort zone when it comes to game design. When I create games, I usually make them on my own, and also usually take my time. Taking this class, game design was completely different since I had to work with a group, and also had super duper short sprints to make a finished game by. So I definitely wouldn’t say this class was an easy or 100% fun class.
However, I’m really grateful for being exposed to such a jarring and mildly stressful experience, because I’m interested in game design for a career, and not just as a hobby. I think this class made me a more capable and confident game designer, in which I now feel like I can work on games with others (like I’ll likely have to do when I have game design as a career), and that I can do so in an efficient manner. Furthermore, I think even when I’m not in those stressful scenarios, these experiences will make me appreciate relaxed game design (a.k.a by myself and without short sprints) even more!
